Category Archives: Watercolor

Pineapple Palm – Day 26 of 30 in 30

Pineapple palm. 5 x 7 watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper. © 2014 Sheila Delgado

I am having too much fun painting palm trees. I love palm trees. I love watching them move in a gentle breeze. Listen to their soft rustling sounds.

My favorite, is the Pineapple palm. They are short and stocky, and just as the name implies, they look like a giant pineapple. No wonder they scream vacation to me. Sunny Island, colorful drinks with slices of fruit and little umbrellas. OK, so maybe I watched too much Magnum P.I., but can you blame me?

I am calling this done, but I think I may go back in and add a bit to the shadow on the trunk. Any opinions? That dark line is bothering me. I did go in and add some dark to the trunk, but maybe it needs more. I need to create more of a curve.

Pineapple Palm – Work in Progress.

I created an animation of my progress. Learned a few new things today! The only changes in the third slide are that I removed a stroke on the top frond, it was too long. I also connected the trunk to the fronds on the right side. Little tweaks that I think made a big difference.

Only five more days left in Leslie Saeta’s 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

Hope you like the slide show!

Sunset Shadows – Day 25 of 30 in 30

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Sunset Shadows. 4 x 5 watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper. © 2014 Sheila Delgado

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date.

I painted until the wee hours last night. And I did finish a painting. You can see it below. I was so “in the zone” that I arrived at my destination, without knowing how I got there. Does that ever happen to you? It’s like I got on the 76, missed my exit on the 15 north. And I ended up at the beach instead of the desert.

Not a bad thing. Just not my intention.

I woke up this morning, and couldn’t get excited about posting the painting. So I decided to keep trying. And painting. And painting. Finally got something worth looking at.

Ochre patchwork. 6 x 6 watercolor, pen on cold press paper. © 2014 Sheila Delgado

What I had intended for the patchwork, was something a bit more weathered and worn. I added the outlines digitally to see if I liked it before trying with a pen. Turns out even my darkest pen ends up looking a little grey. So the digital version won.

Now it’s time for some dinner, and then I am going to head over to Leslie Saeta’s blog, and see what my artist friends have been up to. Hope you will check it out as well.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Day 24 of 30 in 30

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Sea and Sand. 6 x 6 watercolor on 140 cold press paper. © 2014 Sheila Delgado

I finished painting early today. Had visions of going to bed early too, but it didn’t happen. Here are three pieces I worked on. Works in progress. Beginnings.

Just playing with paint, trying to create textures like the background in Day 23. Yellow ochre and indigo were calling me. I am counting this as my painting for today, but I don’t think it is in any way finished. Maybe I can add a bird, birds on the shore, or some sunlight reflecting. Hmmm…

Each of these came out looking like a landscape, but I wasn’t thinking of any in particular. The first column is how I painted them.

Works in progress. watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper.

When I scanned them in, I rotated each of them, to see if an idea would jump out at me. Does anything come to mind for you?

You can see, I painted the first one with the yellow as a sky, but it did not work as well as flipping it upside down. Duh, this works better as sand than sky.

The one in the middle, I think might be a total loss. This last one crashed and burned. I liked it the best, so that was a bummer.

Looking at them lined up like this, I got the idea to do a cheater quilt in these colors for my Spoonflower shop. So that was one good thing that came from goofing around.

I may not have finished the day with a painting, but I did play with color, and texture. I did not focus on an end result. So I can call it a play day, and give myself a yellow ochre star for letting go!

Hey, is today Friday? Woo-whoo! Only two more days until Downton! Happy Friday!

Leslie Saeta’s 30 Painting in 30 Days Challenge